Steps to keep your kidney healthier and longer

Your entire health and wellbeing depend on maintaining kidney health. By maintaining healthy kidneys, your body will correctly filter and eliminate waste and create hormones to support proper body functioning.

Here are some suggestions for maintaining kidney health.

Don’t Overdo Certain Medications
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, are known as NSAIDs. If you take too many at once or too frequently, they can harm your kidneys. Additionally, long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for GERD or an ulcer increases the risk of developing chronic kidney disease. Only take them if your doctor advises you to do so.

Eat Healthy
Everything you eat, even unhealthy foods like excess fat, salt, and sugar, is processed by your kidneys. A poor diet can eventually cause kidney-harming conditions like high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and others. A healthy diet has lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and few processed foods.

Watch Your Salt
Lots of salt also raises your chances of high blood pressure, a typical cause of kidney disease, and kidney stones, which can be very painful and possibly cause damage without treatment.

Keep active and fit
Regular exercise is beneficial to your health. It may reduce the chance of developing chronic renal disease. Additionally, it can lower blood pressure and improve heart health, all of which are important for avoiding kidney injury.

Assess Your Risk
5 Main Risk Factors:
•    Diabetes (you or your family)
•    High blood pressure (you or your family)
•    Heart disease (you or your family
•    Family history of kidney failure, diabetes, or high blood pressure
•    Obesity

Monitor blood pressure and blood sugar
Kidney damage can occur in people with high blood pressure, diabetes, or another illness that raises blood sugar levels. However, you can reduce the risk of harm if you can manage your blood sugar and blood pressure. Additionally, if the damage is detected early, your doctor can take action to reduce or stop further harm.

Drink plenty of fluids
Water helps get important nutrients to your kidneys and move waste to your bladder in the form of urine. The tiny filters inside your kidneys can become blocked if you don't drink enough, which can cause infections and kidney stones. Your kidneys can become damaged by even slight dehydration if it occurs frequently enough. Usually, four to six glass a day are sufficient, but if you're sick or working outside in the heat, you could need more.

Don’t smoke
Blood vessels in your body are harmed by smoking. As a result, the blood flow to your kidneys and throughout your body is slowed down. Additionally, smoking increases the chance of kidney cancer. Your risk will decrease if you stop smoking.

Be Careful With Alcohol
If you’re healthy, a drink or two isn’t likely to hurt your kidneys. But binge drinking (having more than four drinks in less than 2 hours) can cause sudden, serious damage and possibly lead to long-term problems.

Get Screened
Knowing your chances of getting renal disease is important. If you or close family members have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or a history of kidney failure, the risk increases. As part of your routine examination, your doctor might recommend particular kidney testing in these circumstances. The earlier you catch it, the easier it is to treat and sometimes even stop.

The following people may benefit from regular screening:
•    People who are over 60 years old
•    People who were born at a low birth weight
•    People who have cardiovascular disease or have family with it
•    People who have or have a family history of high blood pressure
•    People who are obese
•    People who believe they may have kidney damage

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